The invention relates to user interfaces, and more particularly, to a customer feedback button on the console of such a user interface that is pressed by a customer in response to a perceived level of machine performance.
It is imperative that one improves customer satisfaction with machines in order to increase sales, therefore, it is of vital importance to know exactly what causes dissatisfaction and to know that as soon as it happens. If an assigned company representative was constantly on hand it would be possible for the customer to tell that representative, "I hate it when the machine does that". This information would be useful to use in servicing that particular account and in planning future products. In servicing the account one could come to understand exactly what the customer's tolerance is for various conditions. For example, is a particular customer particularly disturbed by a certain type of copy defect which another customer may not mind at all.
Advanced systems like remote interactive communication (RIC) tells one precisely when a machine is not running within specification. With this information, a representative can visit the account from which the signal came and repair or adjust the machine. However, with RIC, one knows nothing about how this performance relates to that particular customer annoyance threshold. If one had some way of correlating the customers' dissatisfaction with a given machine state, one could come to understand that particular customer's requirements, and prioritize one's activities accordingly Many of the process controls in the xerographic machine involve trading off the performance of the machine with respect to one parameter against the performance of another. Some examples might include, paper throughput rate or range of papers accepted versus the risk of a jam; or the number of colors rendered versus resolution, or copy quality versus speed; or amount of background versus solid area performance. Thus, If customer A was extremely annoyed with any paper jams, but didn't seem to mind an occasional copy quality defect while customer B was extremely sensitive about copy quality and did not mind an occasional jam, the company representative could use this information to prioritize his activities in such a way as to optimize customer satisfaction.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,294 to Nakagami et al. discloses an image forming apparatus equipped with a sensor for detecting the requirement of replenishment and exchange of expendable supplies, parts and the like. The apparatus forms a pre-warning image (33) which is distinguishable from a regular image (35) on the same sheet on which a regular image is formed corresponding to an original (21) or other image data so that operators can easily recognize whether a pre-warning image is on the sheet or not while confirming the regular image. The pre-warning image is formed on a sheet whether it is a roll sheet or cut sheet whenever manual handling is necessary. See Col 1, lines 60-69, Col. 2, lines 1-5.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,613 to Kaiser et al. discloses a warning system for printing presses. The system provides a warning system for a printing press which sounds an acoustic warning when any one of a given set of running conditions is exceeded or departed from. See Col. 1, lines 38-41.
U.S. Pat. No. 3, 3,842,408 to Wells discloses a system for providing an indication of a remote condition or problem within a machine. A transmitter coupled to the machine operates to separately sense different conditions of the machine and transmits separate signals corresponding to the sensed condition of the machine. The signals are carried via the conventional electric power distributing lines to a receiver and indicator apparatus. The indicator apparatus functions to selectively sense the signals from the receiver to provide a visual indication of the sensed condition of the machine.
The Xerox Disclosure Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2 March/April 1993, page 145, discloses a system for automating customer satisfaction data surveys by including an electronic customer feedback interface in a machine.
Some of the limitations with prior art remote interactive communication (RIC) systems is that there is a limited amount of information that can be collected by electronic sensing means. There is also no direct correlation between the objective criteria which are set up by product designers to trigger a diagnostic alert, with the individual customer's own sensitivities. Additionally, in the case when the customer has reached his/her own tolerance threshold with the machine in the absence of a RIC alert, there is no contextually relevant data available, that would link directly to the incident or event which precipitated the service call, for the technician to utilize when he/she arrives on the scene.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved technique for notification of precise customer dissatisfaction with a performance quality of a particular machine. It is still another object of the present invention to improve customer satisfaction with a particular machine by the use of a RIC switch and collection of information on customer requirements for that particular customer's satisfaction. It is still another object of the present invention to allow the pre-setting of conditions demanding automatic calling to a remote operator. Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.